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Double Mountain Brewing out of Hood River, Oregon have always looked different and they have a cool logo on the side of the logo. Double Mountain makes half-liter bottles that have thicker glass than normal – and their website invites customers to reuse the bottles by bringing them back to the brewery to be refilled.

By reusing bottles rather than sending them through the recycling process, the refillable glass bottles use 4 times less carbon than recycled (one-way) glass and 7 times less carbon the aluminum cans.

Also, these thicker bottles protect the beer inside from UV light that negates flavor. So, in addition to being greener, reusable bottles make for better tasting beer, as well.

Just announced a few days ago, a new consortium of breweries are committing to making reusable bottles a standard practice. The breweries include Widmer Brothers, Bouy Beer, GoodLife, Gigantic, Wild Ride and Rock Bottom breweries.

The reusable bottles will be on store shelves like other brands, but they’ll look a little different. According to OPB:

The new program will allow consumers to continue returning all their beer bottles the same way they do now, but the refillable ones will be set aside and washed instead of being crushed. Refillable bottles returned to collection machines will be rejected and will need to be hand-counted for a deposit refund.

The bottles will be trucked to Montana where they’re washed and returned for usage again. Even with the carbon footprint of the drive, it’s still lower than crushing the glass and recycling it.